0 Have your say A proposed ban on kelp harvesting is based on a misguided campaign and could pose a wider threat to science-based businesses, writes Dr Sandy Dobbie of Marine Biopolymers Ltd. Scotland desperately needs sustainable growth but where will it come from? Our country has some of the best universities and research scientists in the world and punches ‘well above its weight’, particularly in chemical and life sciences. But what good is that if we don’t reap the benefits of our own innovation? If we can’t turn Scottish inventions into jobs for our people, what’s the point? That’s the bizarre situation facing Marine Biopolymers Ltd (MBL). We could create over 40 jobs in the West Highlands based on our own scientific innovation, but we could be prevented from doing this by a scaremongering campaign that wants to stop this valuable new industry. Our company was born in the labs at Strathclyde University and has created a new way to make alginate, a biodegradable gelling and thickening product found in specific kelp. Scotland led the world in this alginate industry for 70 years and MBL now wants to create a new, “green” successor to it based on an abundant Scottish asset – our 20 million tonnes of Laminaria hyperborea kelp. We’d use only 0.15 per cent of this naturally regenerating resource each year; 99.85 per cent would not be touched. To put this in perspective, Nature “harvests” and replaces 100 times more every year – and nobody bats an… [Read full story]